How to wrap async function calls into a sync function in Node.js or Javascript?

Question

deasync turns async function into sync, implemented with a blocking mechanism by calling Node.js event loop at JavaScript layer. As a result, deasync only blocks subsequent code from running without blocking entire thread, nor incuring busy wait. With this module, here is the answer to the jsFiddle challenge:

function AnticipatedSyncFunction(){
  var ret;
  setTimeout(function(){
      ret = "hello";
  },3000);
  while(ret === undefined) {
    require('deasync').runLoopOnce();
  }
  return ret;    
}


var output = AnticipatedSyncFunction();
//expected: output=hello (after waiting for 3 sec)
console.log("output="+output);
//actual: output=hello (after waiting for 3 sec)

(disclaimer: I am the co-author of deasync. The module was created after posting this question and found no workable proposal.)

There is a npm sync module also. which is used for synchronize the process of executing the query.

When you want to run parallel queries in synchronous way then node restrict to do that because it never wait for response. and sync module is much perfect for that kind of solution.

Sample code

/*require sync module*/
var Sync = require('sync');
    app.get('/',function(req,res,next){
      story.find().exec(function(err,data){
        var sync_function_data = find_user.sync(null, {name: "sanjeev"});
          res.send({story:data,user:sync_function_data});
        });
    });


    /*****sync function defined here *******/
    function find_user(req_json, callback) {
        process.nextTick(function () {

            users.find(req_json,function (err,data)
            {
                if (!err) {
                    callback(null, data);
                } else {
                    callback(null, err);
                }
            });
        });
    }

reference link: https://www.npmjs.com/package/sync

You've got to use promises:

const asyncOperation = () => {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        setTimeout(()=>{resolve("hi")}, 3000)
    })
}

const asyncFunction = async () => {
    return await asyncOperation();
}

const topDog = () => {
    asyncFunction().then((res) => {
        console.log(res);
    });
}

I like arrow function definitions more. But any string of the form "() => {...}" could also be written as "function () {...}"

So topDog is not async despite calling an async function.

EDIT: I realize a lot of the times you need to wrap an async function inside a sync function is inside a controller. For those situations, here's a party trick:

const getDemSweetDataz = (req, res) => {
    (async () => {
        try{
            res.status(200).json(
                await asyncOperation()
            );
        }
        catch(e){
            res.status(500).json(serviceResponse); //or whatever
        }
    })() //So we defined and immediately called this async function.
}

Utilizing this with callbacks, you can do a wrap that doesn't use promises:

const asyncOperation = () => {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        setTimeout(()=>{resolve("hi")}, 3000)
    })
}

const asyncFunction = async (callback) => {
    let res = await asyncOperation();
    callback(res);
}

const topDog = () => {
    let callback = (res) => {
        console.log(res);
    };

    (async () => {
        await asyncFunction(callback)
    })()
}

By applying this trick to an EventEmitter, you can get the same results. Define the EventEmitter's listener where I've defined the callback, and emit the event where I called the callback.

If function Fiber really turns async function sleep into sync

Yes. Inside the fiber, the function waits before logging ok. Fibers do not make async functions synchronous, but allow to write synchronous-looking code that uses async functions and then will run asynchronously inside a Fiber.

From time to time I find the need to encapsulate an async function into a sync function in order to avoid massive global re-factoring.

You cannot. It is impossible to make asynchronous code synchronous. You will need to anticipate that in your global code, and write it in async style from the beginning. Whether you wrap the global code in a fiber, use promises, promise generators, or simple callbacks depends on your preferences.

My objective is to minimize impact on the caller when data acquisition method is changed from sync to async

Both promises and fibers can do that.

Nowadays this generator pattern can be a solution in many situations.

Here an example of sequential console prompts in nodejs using async readline.question function:

var main = (function* () {

  // just import and initialize 'readline' in nodejs
  var r = require('readline')
  var rl = r.createInterface({input: process.stdin, output: process.stdout })

  // magic here, the callback is the iterator.next
  var answerA = yield rl.question('do you want this? ', r=>main.next(r))    

  // and again, in a sync fashion
  var answerB = yield rl.question('are you sure? ', r=>main.next(r))        

  // readline boilerplate
  rl.close()

  console.log(answerA, answerB)

})()  // <-- executed: iterator created from generator
main.next()     // kick off the iterator, 
                // runs until the first 'yield', including rightmost code
                // and waits until another main.next() happens